Text 9855, 98 rader
Skriven 2007-01-01 13:38:10 av hap newsom
     Kommentar till en text av MICHAEL LOO
Ärende: RE: adelaide hills 800
==============================
Happy New Year Michael!

->  HN> Now I have another "learning" question; How much of the character 
of
->  HN> the  wine is contributed by the winemaker? Isn't the process pretty
->  HN> much "set in  stone"? and how much is determined by the grapes
->  HN> character, the soil and  weather cobinations?
-> 
-> The factors you cite are relevant but will be allowed for by
-> an experienced vintner, whereas the fresh out of school guy
-> who thinks the process is set in stone will make terrific wine
-> out of one batch of grapes and then swill out of the next, and
-> he'd darn well better figure out how to even out the production
-> or at least improve the bottom end, or else.
-> 
-> Starting with grapes of a certain ripeness and potential alcohol
-> content, it's the winemaker's job to regulate tons of things -
-> 
-> varieties in the crush (seldom is someone going to want a 100%
-> anything)
-> 
Hmmmm, Why not? If you grow that particular grape do you need to grow 
another variety as well? Didn't know that they did that to all wines. 

-> amount of extraction
-> 
Not sure what that means.

-> amount of time spent in contact with pomace
-> 
Ok I know what that means but thought it was a determined time....what 
factors get involved in figuring out "how long?"

-> wild or cultured yeasts
-> 
-> fermentation speed and temperature
-> 
-> fermentation length (and thus residual sugar)
-> 
These I understand 

-> type of vessel used for fermentation
-> 
Thought this was almost always stainless steel these days and 
determined by health regs more than vintners.

-> fining or not, and if so, vegetarian or other

Hmmmm??
-> 
-> filtration or not
-> 
-> type of vessels used for aging
-> 
-> introduction of additional oak (at Cline, the winemaker
-> showed us this purple-stained plank that he apparently
-> uses to add depth to wine that he thinks needs a kick)
-> 
Thank goodness they have not yet come up with an "oak extract"

-> length of aging.
-> 
-> Then there's the variation in every batch, so it has to
-> be decided how that's to be dealt with when producing
-> a consistent product for the market.
-> 
That's where I thought the most variations would be.

-> You might figure that there is a cut-and-dried aspect to
-> grapes+yeast = wine, but the devil is in the details, as
-> they say.
-> 
->  For example on the pinot
->  HN> grigio 05 above you said it  was milkiness on the palate (what does
->  HN> that mean?) and rather  uninspired....what would have made it 
inspired
->  HN> and how (who) would have  made that difference?
-> 
-> Better grapes and more time on lees would have made
-> a difference. How the winemaker managed to get malic
-> sharpness and the signs of malolactic together in one
-> wine I don't know, unless there was some unwanted
-> variety of bacteria in the fermentation mix. As I
-> intimated, I rather liked some of the other wines
-> made at Chain of Ponds, so it's likely this was the
-> stray introduction of a contaminant in the batch
-> rather than a bad stylistic choice by the winemaker.
-> 
So you would say it was a bad batch because of bad grapes more than 
because of bad "winemaking"? Next question would be if the wine is on the 
market the winemaker MUST have tasted it and known what "went wrong" 
then why put it out on the market at all if it's going to be  bad publicity in 
effect?
Thanks for elucidating!
chat with you soon
hap 
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